Update??

How do I update when I haven't written since I was engaged, married, a student teacher etc!?! My goodness.  I suppose I will just say that engagement was probably one of the hardest things, then marriage was bliss.  Student teaching proved to possibly oust engagement and now I'm about to graduate! I can't believe it.  However, I am thinking with all these changes, a new blog might be necessary.  So, if you currently are reading this and would like to read about my life as a Jones.... Then please leave your address and I'll do my best to invite you to that blog :) Don't be shy...

Engagements

You likely already know that I am engaged to the best guy in the world.  I love him and everyday I love him even more.  We had engagement pictures done by Heather Mildenstein who was just great to work with and was a fantastic price too! Anyway, we had tons of fun taking the pictures and I realized that Alex can make me laugh really easily (which is good, it gives a more natural look).  Well, here are a few of the good ones:)  Don't forget to mark your calendar for December 22nd! We are counting the days!

Road Trippin' it to Ely, Nevada

So Alex came home from a mission in Dallas Texas. If you didn't know, he became one of my best friends and we were writing each other. This called for some celebration in his new home of Ely and I wanted to go support him.  This meant a road trip was needed.  I wanted some company so I invited Gracie along too.  Boy it sure was fun watching the miles of nothing go by as the GPS showed just how far we had left.

Here we are in the beginning... 4 hours later we arrived.

 Alex's family went to have some family pictures the train station.  We went along and sat and watched a bit but also took some of our own pictures.  Boy it was a cool place!

Waiting around...

They had a grandparents picture with the grandkids.  It was funny to watch all the adults try to get the kids to look and smile.

 There was a caboose that had a sign in the window.  You can stay the night in the caboose! How cool is that?  Someday I think I might just try that....

Just the two of us!

Just thinking.... on the back of a train.

 

Needless to say, he has changed a little.  From the bit I was with him, I would say all for the better.  It was great to go support him in his talk in church and the spend time with all of his family.  

 On the way home, we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Gracie wanted to write our "names" ( a guy once got our names mixed  up and called us Tracy and Gradie) with rocks but there weren't any rocks.  This meant we had to do it in dirt.... 

We were tired but still had a decent drive back home. With only one stop, we got to Gracie's house at about 10:50 pm.  Sure the distance was long but it was a worthwhile trip that is for sure!

Búcsú Sister Gallion!

My roommate Tielle is off to serve in Budapest, Hungry.  I am so excited for her! I can't wait to see her in the MTC.  She will be there for about 12 weeks, so I'm bound to see her.  Tielle's aunt was so kind to invite us over to see her off the night before she went into the MTC.

We arrived and just had a long chat, catching up and everything.  Tielle's aunt also fed us stir fry.  She was so kind!  I'm so happy for Tielle, but I will definitely miss her VERY VERY much!

So sad she is leaving us!

We love you Tielle!!!

She will make a fantastic missionary!

Days of '47 Parade

It's been a dream of mine to camp out for the SLC Parade on July 24th.  This year, I was talking to Kendall and he said he had wanted to do it as well.  We agreed that we would do it so it was a plan.  I tried really hard to convince people that it would be fun, but they were either not interested or had previous plans.  Needless to say, Kendall and I still held strong.  We got 2 others to join us, Gracie and Stephen.

Sunday night, we embarked on our journey to SLC.  We drove 2 cars so Stephen could stay up there the next day.  We brought Toma and Sasquatch (our love sacs), blankets, snacks, and breakfast.  We arrived and drove the route a few times only to not see many spots open.  We found a sweet unloading parking spot that said we could park there for as long as we wanted between 6pm-6am  This allowed us to unload quite close to where we wanted to set up camp.  We camped out up a ledge, behind a granite sign, with random building behind us.  It said 139 on the front. Here is the sign... It kinda acted as a sound wall.

 Kendall had some brilliant ideas.  One was to put out a blanket somewhere to sit for the parade.  This meant we got some sweet curbside seats for the parade, without having to be squished while camping.  We sure enjoyed ourselves.  Here is Stephen and Kendall Chilling....

Gracie and I chilling away... Oh ya and a bunny from Kendall's apartment. 

 Just playing some Truth or Dare as well as Compatibility.  Needless to say, Stephen and I aren't compatible.

 We put up Jill's canopy in order to block some of the street lights.  It only blocked one side so the guys tried to block the others with a box and blanket.  It was so funny to watch!

 Here is how they blocked the other side.  Sure was creative.  Next year... we'll bring tents.  Oh ya, we will be doing this again.  We loved it and couldn't stop saying "Next year we will...."

 This is how we slept that night.  Not to great of a position, but we got like 4.5 hours...  This is in the morning though.

 Here are our seats! We loved it.  We were diagonal from the news cameras which meant we were on TV quite frequently.

 We are SO excited we can't even keep it in!

Great seats eh?

So, all you are invited to come camp out with us next year.  We plan on having a projector to watch a movie, a grill to cook on, better light blockers, more love sacs and blankets and more people :)

Surgery it is....

Well folks, I've decided that surgery is the way out of this ankle problem.  I've "lived" with it for quite some time and I've now decided that I want it fixed.  First I kept a "very specific and the best we've ever seen" (Dr. Johnston and PA) pain journal.  Then I went back, and took a shot to my ankle.  Cortisone shot was the decision.  This was in fact a close second to the most painful shot or prick I've ever felt.  Then later that day I experienced the most pain in the foot and I had to ride my bike to get snow cones with my roommates instead of limping along.

Nevertheless, this shot only lasted about a week.  After, I hated the thought of submitting to surgery, the last one wasn't so pleasant, but I've now decided it is the best solution.  I'm praying that it will all go smoothly and hope for a speedy recovery because I've got things to do, people to see and places to go, not to mention a spinning class Fall semester with Gracie.  So August 9th I will be going under.  Flowers and gifts can be sent or brought to my house.  I love ice cream and smoothies and movie watching buddies:)
Wish me luck!

Security

For the 4th of July, I conned Stacie into working security for the Stadium of Fire with me.  We interviewed and were offered the temporary positions of security.  We were stoked and hoping we got to get official gear.

We attended the Training meeting learning that we must look for weapons, weird objects that you wouldn't think a person would need, food, drink, water, food, drink and did I mention food and drink?  Ok so we got our sweet polo shirt and hat.  Sweet= super ugly, really long sleeves, blue polyester, and HOT!

The day of, we suited up.  Took some pictures....

 and left to cruise to the stadium on our bikes.  Boy were we a sight! Oh I forgot to mention they had security on the back of the shirts.

It was a mere 95+ degrees.  I was stationed at the north west gate meaning sun, Sun, and more SUN! Oh and thousands of people would enter just our gate. It sure got fun once the crowed started showing up.  We had to check every single persons bag that walked into the stadium.  I never realized how people could be so pleasant about having to give up their new package of red vines, or how angry and violent they can be about having to leave their energy drink in the garbage.

I didn't find anything suspicious that I know of... I only really had to call the officer over twice.  Once for a lady trying to say her 1 year old would be eating tons of red vines and popcorn. Whatever.... Anyway the most excitement I saw really was a lady and her husband walked out of the event in the middle of the last song and said she had just gone into labor.  The husband asked the officer if they could get a ride to their car since it was about 5-7 blocks away.  He worked it out and I imagine they made it to the hospital.

Luckily, I got rotated in to see the Fantastic firework show! It was set to music and lit up the stadium and sky.  no other show will seem the same after that one.

All in all, it was a great way to make a little extra cash, not to mention get into the event free:)